George Is Moving On…

I’m changing jobs and moving to the Trustworthy Computing organization under Adrienne Hall’s leadership. This was a difficult choice for me to make, but the right one for my career development. I’ve really enjoyed working in the Microsoft Certified Professional Community Space, and working with all the great team players such as Lilia Taylor, Rolando Zarate, Ken Rosen, Trika Harms Zum Spreckel, and many others who have helped make the MCP community more active and vibrant over the last year.

We got to see MCP Benefits get launched in October, 2007. There was a lot of work in involved and some challenges in making this happen for you guys, but it was worth it. It’s a step in the right direction, and Microsoft Learning is looking for ways to reward our MCP and MCTs for being Microsoft Certified. We straightened out the MCP welcome kit mess for now, but we need to keep our eye on it.

If you recall, many of you received vouchers for delays caused by us for not getting the welcome kits shipped to you in a timely fashion for welcome kits you placed an order for. You go to see downloadable versions of the certificates for the new generation certifications such as MCITP, MCPD. We now have a revamped process, along with plans to shorten the welcome kit shipment times thanks to the collaborative efforts of many hands chipping in to make this a better process. We’re looking to utilize the “pizza box” delivery package utilized by the MCT program to ensure your welcome kits get there undamaged the first time.

We’ve seen our active participation increase almost 20 % last year from all the MCP who logged in and accessed their benefits and resources from the MCP Secure Site at https://mcp.microsoft.com/mcp. There’s more cool stuff coming for the MCP program. You’ll find that being Microsoft Certified does mean something, and will help you with your career.

Thanks to the assistance of Rajesh Mohan, Rahul Parikh, Donal Cavanagh, and Venumadhava rao Yandapally, we’ve got better customer issue escalation in place from the regional service centers to tier 1 to Tier 2 to handle MCP issues coming in.

There’s still more work to do for us, but I’m confident it’s going to happen. Quite a few good ideas have come up from the MCP Community on how to add value to being certified. Microsoft Learning is listening and they are serious about adding value to certification, and I’ve seen quite a few amazing folks step up to make things happen in this space behind the scenes.

I’d like to thank Noury Bernard-Hasan, Wayne Anderson, Adam Jaffe, Howard Dierking, Trika Harms Zum Spreckel, Lilia Taylor, Rolando Zarate, Rob Linsky, Rick Grindley, Bill Wall, Steve Sheppard, Max Myrick, Helmer Zandenberg, and many others for their assistance and feedback to help me get ramped up on the MCP program. In my absence, Ken Rosen will be covering down until we can identify the next MCP community lead. If you know of any good candidates (must be Microsoft Certified) who are passionate about adding value to Microsoft Certifications, and growing the MCP Community, please send them to Ken Rosen to see if they’re a good fit.

Warmest Regards,

George

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2008
  PingBack from http://microsoftnews.askpcdoc.com/?p=2371

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2008
  Hi George: Congrats on the move! Let us know your new blog URL when you get it up and running.

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2008
  It went too fast! +1 to Robert's comment! You can run but you can't hide... we'll still keep an eye on you :-)

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2008
  Hi George! Congratulations on your carreermove!! Really enjoyed giving input to the MCP Program (and I will keep giving input) :-) And as Robert already asked : You have my emailaddress so you know where to mail the new blog url :) All the best and good luck with your new job! Helmer